CITY SECTION SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS : Shaw’s Double Paces Granada Hills

LONG BEACH —  Granada Hills High on Wednesday won its first girls’ City Section swimming championship, a title which means more to senior Erin Shaw than the City medley record she set two years ago for one reason.

“So many more people were involved in this,” she said after pacing the Highlanders to a 67-point victory over Venice. “We really felt everyone was able to contribute.”

True. But no swimmer contributed more than Shaw, who shrugged off the memory of a disappointing performance in the finals last year to win two individual events and anchor a winning relay team at the Belmont Plaza pool.

Palisades High, which had won City titles 13 of the past 14 years, finished third.

Natalie and Stephanie Shapiro combined to win three individual races, the most important of which was Stephanie’s upset of Birmingham’s Gretchen Ballard in the 500-yard freestyle.

Although Ballard did not shave for the City finals, she still had the fastest qualifying time entering the final.

Ballard led for most of the race, but Shapiro closed with 25 yards remaining and out-touched Ballard by .05 seconds. It marked Ballard’s first career loss in a City final.

“We figured [Stephanie Shapiro] would win the 200 medley but just about conceded the 500 to Gretchen,” Granada Hills Coach Steve Reardon said. “It’s amazing she was able to pull it off.”

Ballard, who will travel to France next week with the U.S. Junior National team, won the 50 freestyle, giving her five individual titles in the last three years.

Stephanie Shapiro won the 200 individual medley by just under three seconds and Natalie Shapiro followed with a victory in the 100 freestyle.

Shaw’s victories in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly followed second-place finishes in two events last year.

“I was really disappointed last year,” Shaw said. “I felt I could have done better. This is a much better way for me to go out.”

Birmingham reclaimed the boys’ title it lost to Venice last season without winning an individual race.

The Braves won the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays to defeat the Gondoliers by 92 points.

Chris Wilson (50 freestyle), Fareed Elcott (100 breaststroke) and Chris Costales (100 backstroke) each picked up second-place finishes.

“This really means it was a team victory,” Birmingham Coach Nick Rodionoff said. “Nobody was really outstanding, but they all did very well.”

Cleveland, competing as a team for the second year after a prolonged absence, produced its first individual champion--sophomore Mitchell Hefter.

Hefter had the fastest time in the 50 freestyle preliminaries and came from behind to defeat Birmingham’s Wilson in 22.64.

“The same thing happened to me last week,” Hefter said. “I was able to make up the difference in the last 25 yards. I’ll take it any way I can get it.”

Cleveland, paced by mostly freshmen and sophomores, finished fourth, three points behind Taft.

Aaron Robinson of El Camino Real won the 200 freestyle in 1:49.17 and the 500 freestyle in 4:55.86--more than 35 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Marc Siegel of Palisades.

Erik Kim of Granada Hills won the boys’ 100 breaststroke in 1:05.45. Jennifer Brown of El Camino Real won the girls’ event in 1:08.71.